Ústí nad Labem is the administrative, economic and cultural centre of the Ústí nad Labem Region, and has a population of approximately 94,000. Both the unemployment rate and the rate of people with only basic or uncompleted education are considerably higher than the national average, and the average monthly income is also lower. As Ústí nad Labem is the centre of the Ústí nad Labem Region, such realities tend to be mitigated, and are not as striking as they are in smaller towns (such as Bílina) and in the countryside of the Ústí nad Labem region. Nonetheless, examining the same data for particular boroughs of Ústí nad Labem containing large concentrations of the socially excluded (such as Krásné Březno, Předlice, and Trmice), shows the results are even more bleak than those of Bílina. For instance, the unemployment rate in the borough of Trmice reached as high as 28.1% in December of 2005.

Roma are believed to comprise approximately ten percent of the population of Ústí nad Labem, having migrated in numerous waves from Eastern Slovakia in the second half of twentieth century. It is also noteworthy that a relatively large number of foreigners (mostly Vietnamese, Ukrainian, Slovak and Russian) also live in Ústí nad Labem.

Two city quarters which exhibit symptoms of social exclusion are recognized as the most pressing cases.

• Předlice – has been referred to as a ‘troublesome quarter’ for more than ten years; poor and unemployed people are concentrated here, which leads to frequent robberies, loan sharking, prostitution, drug dealing and drug abuse.
• Krásné Březno – likewise labeled a ‘bad place’, due in part to the housing policy of the Ústí nad Labem boroughs. A familiar pattern unfolds here: the greater the concentration of poor people in a quarter or street, the more the area is perceived as ‘troublesome’ and, thus, evaded by average citizens. Housing prices fall, flats become more accessible to poor families for purchase and rent, and their number in the quarter or street increases.